Family Picture, Family Portrait
by Mother Of The Universe
Summary: Written for October 3rd. The Elric Brother's lost all their family pictures to the flames when they burned down their home, but that didn't stop the family they gained along the way from giving them a collection of family portraits to call their own. Rated T because why not?


**A one-shot written for FMA day. It's most likely not October 3rd yet back at my home, but, since I'm in Australia, and it's October 3rd right now, I'm hashing this out.**

 **Disclaimer: FMA is not mine.**

 **And without further ado, on with the show!**

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 _Family Picture, Family Portrait_

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The Elric Brother's didn't have any family portraits. All the pictures they owned; their favorite pictures of themselves and their beloved mother had burned down in smoke and flames, the day they light their house on fire.

Yes, there where the few family picture's on the Rockbell's bulletin board in their house, but those pictures did not belong to Edward and Alphonse.

Despite no longer having any family portraits, the two boys had acquired a small amount of picture's during their travels.

One picture was taken by Fury, the day Edward received his first mission as a state alchemist. It had the entirety of team Mustang, along with Ed and Al. Havoc and Fallman had lifted Ed up onto their shoulders, and while everyone else was smiling in the photo (Mustang had decided to stick his tongue out and pull on his eye lid instead, however), Edward was struggling to stay balanced on top of the two tall men's shoulders, and the camera caught him in a state of (humiliating) panic. Of corse, Fury didn't pay for enough footage to take a second picture, so they ended up stuck with that one. Edward had grumpily insisted that it was the worst photo he had ever taken, but somehow, it ended up in the back of his travel log, and even he had forgotten that he had kept it.

Another picture was taken by the Hughes family. Edward and Alphonse where playing with Elicia, and Hughes had secretly caught them in the moment. Edward was smiling — a real smile — and Alphonse seemed to radiate joy, despite having no face expression. Hughes had insisted they keep it, and even though Ed protested, claiming that he didn't have anywhere to put it, it still found it's way into Edwards suitcase, and was kept ever since.

Then there was the picture that Winry _insisted_ Ed had to take after his automail recovery. His hair had grown out a bit, but it was messy, unkept, and un-showered, and both Winry and Granny looked equally disheveled. But, despite their dirty hair, and unwashed faces, and messy clothes, Winry had them take the photo anyways, hugging her two boys close to her (close enough to make Ed turn slightly red), Granny stood besides them when the picture was taken. The photo stayed inside the Rockbell's house for quite a few months, before Edward and Alphonse secretly took it with them one day, after a hasty automail that left the two boys particularly missing their home.

There was one day that Hughes had made an informal visit to Mustangs office, on a particularly chaotic day, and declared that the team was "just like a family". He said that "Roy's the dad, Hawkeye's the mom, Alphonse is the 'second mom', Jean's the fun big brother, Vato's the smart big brother, Heymans's the cool uncle, Fury's the nerdy little brother, and Edwards is the energetic youngest!" Edward had quite a protest to being categorized as the youngest family member, especially since the "second mom" was younger than him. Alphonse was left confused as to weather "second mom" meant some sort of godmother, or an elder sibling. He assumed he was meant to be the older sister, since big sister's where usually "second mom's", but then Breda wen't and told him he was the family dog, which got Alphonse rather upset. Hughes then declared he was the Godfather, which started a petty argument between him and Mustang because "you can't make that decision!" Long story short, Hughes eventually insisted that they take a family picture, which involved a lot of posing, protesting, unhappiness from a lot of people, Hawkeye getting more and more annoyed that they weren't getting back to work, Hughes hiding her guns away from her (and let's just say he nearly died trying) and a moment that Mustang would never let Edward live down. Hughes had forced Mustang and Hawkeye to sit on the office couch. Alphonse and Havoc stood directly behind them, Alphonse behind Hawkeye and Havoc behind Mustang ("See! I told you I wasn't the family dog!") Fallman and Fury stood either side of them, and Breda stood at the side of the couch (he was feeling very un-included by being the "uncle" instead of a sibling), and poor Edward, as the families "little boy" (he was very unhappy about receiving this title) was forced to sit between Mustang and Hawkeye on the couch, like the smallest child would in an actual family picture. When the camera finally clicked, Breda was radiating a rejected aura, Hawkeye was glaring at Hughes with a stare that could rival the pure scariness of the Ice Queen of Briggs, Fury was partially covered by Havoc (who decided to give himself a big and triumphant pose), Alphonse was beginning to fall over, having been knocked off-balance by Havoc, Fallman was screaming as the giant suit of armor began to tip towards him, Mustang was laughing hysterically at the position that Edward was forced into, and Ed was wearing the biggest frown that anyone had ever seen on a human being. Every member of team Mustang was given a copy of the photo, and while Ed tried to throw his out multiple times, he found that it somehow always found a way back into his suitcase (he blames Alphonse for it).

There was another picture that Hughes had taken, during Edwards 15th birthday party. It was the first time Ed had remembered feeling happy on his birthday since Alphonse lost his body, and Hughes had caught the moment that Edward was dancing around with Winry and Alphonse. He had been laughing at Winry's lack of dancing skills, and after what Hughes called a "typical Ed 'n Winry flirt session" (which involved the two of them arguing over the most petty of things, which usually somehow ended with the two of them laughing), all three friends where bursting at the gut, and Hughes had gotten a photo of the moment. Ed didn't quite remember when the man had given it to him, but he did know that he had kept the picture inside his favorite sock ever since.

Then there was a drawing that Nina had given the brothers. It was scribbled with crayon, and had the drawing skills that one would expect from most girls her age, but she had poured her heart into it, and given it to her big brother's as a gift. It was the only picture they ever had of her.

They owned yet another picture thanks to Hughes. The man seemed to never go anywhere without his camera, and during one of his visits to Edward at the hospital, after the incident at the fifth laboratory, and he had noticed Edward, Alphonse, and Winry playing a board game along with Ross and Brosh, and decided that it was the perfect moment to take a picture of. He had set the camera on a timer so he could pop into it, photo-bomb style, and captured a moment of fun and calming, after everything the two boys had been through in the past week. They later found the picture inside the apple pie box Gracia had given to Winry. It was the last picture Hughes had ever given them.

Izumi had a lot more picture's than they would expect of the two boys during their training. She decided to take one before they left her place, and the two boys ended up smiling along with their adoptive parents.

Ling had made the discovery of Amestrian camera's not long after the two boys met the kid. Xing had a sort of camera, but it didn't take colored photo's, nor did the country have hand-held camera's that people could practically take everywhere. He insisted he try the camera out, and that's how Ed and Al ended up with 10 separate photo's of themselves along with Garfiel, Winry, Paninia, Ling, Lan Fan, and Fu.

A very long time later, the week before the Promis Day, Greed(ling) decided to do the same sort of thing. He grabbed an old camera from the Rockbell's basement, gathered everyone hanging at the house (a very large crowd) near the wall, and took some photo's (he demanded a redo about twelve times, thanks to different people either blinking or "not smiling correctly")

Then, after Alphonse had gotten his body back, a soldier from Briggs had found a camera, and Ling insisted that they take a picture of Alphonse – body and all – along with the rest of the people who fought, cried, and poured everything they had in effort to stop the Homunculi, and who had cheered along with Ed and Al once their bodies where back. And when the picture finally snapped, it caught both Edward and Alphonse sobbing uncontrollable tears of pure happiness, while their father held them both as tightly to his chest as possible, the three of them so happy as to have finally gotten their family back.

A final picture was taken by Granny, of Edward, Alphonse, and Winry, together, holding each other. Alphonse with his body back, Winry with her boys back, and Edward with his happiness back. And all three of them smiled the biggest smile one could possibly manage.

Edward had taken all of these individual picture's with him on the train to Creta. Each picture, each moment captured of him and his friends, his _family_ , where there with him. Those picture's where his. And there where so many individual emotions coming from each one, from annoyance, to humor, to sadness, to the greatest joy one could possibly feel. This was his family. This entire time he had thought he lost it, but it never really left. And not only had it stayed with him, it had grown, grown so much that there are so many people who can describe how unexplainably joyful they felt when Alphonse got his body back. And that was wonderful.

Sure, he may have lost his family pictures on October 3rd, 1911. But he had family portraits all the same.

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 **And done! How was that for an FMA day story?**

 **It's not FMA day in America, but it is for Australia, and I happen to be in that country right now, so this place rules, homeland drools.**

 **This took less than an hour to write, which is awesome. But I hope it's good despite the quick amount of time it took to produce.**

 **I hope you guys liked it. Read and review and all that.**

 **I made a reference to my other one-shot, "Happy Birthday Edward", in this story, so if you want to check it out, I highly suggest that you do so.**

 **In other news, the second chapter to my current project, "Once Upon A Time" (and FMA fairy tale AU), should be up in no more than three days, so if you want to check that story out, feel free to do so.**

 **So, leave a review, and tell me what you think. And happy October 3rd to you all!**

 **~MotherUniverse signing out.**


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